This invention relates to a system for sending live video on the Internet and, more particularly, to a new system for controlling, managing and distributing live video feeds generated from multiple, remote-controlled video cameras installed on-site in locations distributed throughout a region or the world.
Online user interest in digital video and broadband video services is growing currently at an exponential rate. Whether for video downloads, video conferencing, or news video services at work, or broadband video services, video-on-demand, or interactive TV services at home, online users are attracted by the huge qualitative difference in viewing experience and visual interactivity of online video services. Cable operator companies are upgrading their cable distribution facilities to greatly increase the available bandwidth to handle online video services and provide two-way connectivity for interactivity functions for their subscribers. Telephone operating companies are offering T1, fractional T1, and digital subscriber lines (DSL) that have the high bandwidth capacity to handle online video services. Satellite distribution companies also can provide high bandwidth downloading of online video services which can be combined with a telephone line back channel for two-way connectivity. These high bandwidth distribution systems also have the advantage of being xe2x80x9calways onxe2x80x9d to the subscriber, thereby making their viewing experience as accessible and familiar as turning on the television. At the same time, Internet webcasting companies are making use of advanced compression technologies to offer acceptable quality video on the public Internet at common PC modem connectivity bit rates.
Cable operating companies currently reach about 70 million of the 110 million households in the U.S., and expect to have high bandwidth cable facilities upgraded to be available to over 80% of their cable customers by end of Year 2000. Industry analysts project that anywhere from 30% to 70% of all cable customers will become subscribers to interactive TV and online broadband services by 2004. Through their upgraded plant, the cable operating companies will change over their analog TV signals to digital TV signals (as mandated by the FCC by 2002), and have the bandwidth capacity to offer in the range of 500 channels of digital TV, as well as broadband Internet connectivity to their subscribers. Similarly, the number of telephone line subscribers (primarily businesses) to T1, fractional T1, and DSL lines is expected to grow from the current 10 million to over 40 million subscribers by 2004. As the number of online users having access to high bandwidth for digital TV and online video services increases rapidly, thousands of new digital TV and video production companies are expected to be formed to create programming for the hundreds of available new channels in the cable service areas and the millions of Internet sites that can be enabled with online video services, and all of them will need new video content.
The production of TV-quality content is currently very expensive to produce. Typically, a TV or video production entails high costs for staging and taping or filming in a studio. If the production is interspersed with content gathered from the field, camera crews must be dispatched on-site to gather these feeds. If the location of the shoot in the field is in another city or country, large travel and road crew operating costs are incurred. The feeds recorded from the field must be taken back to the studios for editing with the other taped or filmed footage. Large delays in time and waste of personnel time are incurred by the current field-to-studio sourcing of content. Only the large, nationally syndicated TV broadcasting companies can afford to create TV-quality content on a consistent on-going basis. The thousands of new production companies operating on startup or small-company budgets will have a difficult time, if not be precluded from, producing TV-quality content by the current regime of high production costs.
The viewing of live events over TV or on the Internet provides an immediate, emotional impact to the public. As millions of new sources of content are offered on digital TV channels and on Internet sites, content that is live and local will be in high demand to capture viewers"" interest. Similarly, video ads and other commercially sponsored content that covers local events and captures familiar faces and places will have a far greater impact on the viewing, purchasing public than generic content. However, the problem of high costs to capture live events by sending camera crews into the field will make it difficult for the new, smaller production companies to obtain live video feeds and employ them for TV or video production.
There have been some recent developments to use video cameras installed at on-site locations to provide video coverage from the field to an off-site location where the video feeds can be viewed or edited. In the security camera industry, software remote controllers are used to control on-site video cameras linked to a control station by dedicated lines. Sensormatic Electronics Corp., of Boca Raton, Fla., is offering security video cameras that can be controlled by software controllers over an Internet TCP/IP connection. Eyecast.com, of Herndon, Va., is offering a service for uploading security camera feeds via Internet connection to a Web server to preserve the feeds from loss or tampering. Perception Robotics, Inc., of Evanston, Ill., offers a system for viewing a live video feed from the field via Internet and remotely controlling the camera through a Web page menu of camera control parameters.
Other recent developments include media management systems that allow an Internet service provider to manage the use of streaming media on the Internet. For example, Microsoft Corp., of Redmond, Wash., offers the Windows Media Management System which tracks the use of streaming media files accessed or distributed from an ISP""s Web site. Broadcast.com, of Dallas, Tex., offers the service of hosting streaming media programs for client companies on its Web site. MAX.i.c.Live, of Dallas, Tex., offers the 3600 System that can access multiple live video feed sources simultaneously via Internet for off-site video processing. A video asset management system is offered by a joint venture of Excalibur, a U.K. company, under the tradename Screening Room(trademark), and INTERVU Network, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., to provide video content owners and creators with video logging, searching, re-purposing, distribution and publishing capabilities. However, these recent developments do not provide a comprehensive solution for managing the accessing, transmission, distribution, and transacting of large numbers of video feeds captured live from on-site video cameras and from other video sources to large numbers of video producers, intermediaries, and end users at dispersed locations.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide an Internet-based network system for controlling, managing, and efficiently administering the commercial distribution of live video feeds from large numbers of on-site video cameras to large numbers of production companies at other locations. The system should also have the capability to handle stored video feeds or pre-recorded video feeds provided from other sources, in addition to the live video feeds from on-site cameras. Another important objective is to create a video feed management system having a facility for authorizing and tracking accesses by different video producers to any of a large number of video feeds from different sources based upon a computerized feed list and pricing table, in order to generate a billing statement for each video producer and a payment statement to each video feed source. A specific object of the invention is to facilitate the remote control of a wide range of installed video camera types from any location via commonly used Internet browsers. Another specific object is to enable the automated production of commercial Web-based advertising, live events programming, etc., incorporating live video feeds using the described Internet-based video feed management system.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a video feed management system (and related method) comprises: (a) a plurality of video feeds generated from respective video cameras located on-site at a plurality of locations, said video feeds being transmitted via Internet to a designated local propagation server; (b) a plurality of local video-propagation servers located in respective different localities for receiving via Internet the video feeds from the respective video cameras located on-site at locations in respective ones of the different localities; and (c) a master authorization server connected to the Internet for receiving requests via Internet from requesting parties for access to any of the video feeds transmitted to any of the video-propagation servers and granting a requesting party access to a requested video feed through the video-propagation server receiving the requested video feed. In a preferred embodiment of the video feed management system, the master authorization server grants access to a requested video feed by issuing an access code to the requesting party and establishing a unique publishing point for the requested video feed from the video-propagation server handling the feed, which can be accessed by the requesting party using said access code. The on-site video cameras can capture video feeds of live events and transmit them to the video-propagation servers for access by requesting parties as live video feeds. Alternatively, a live video feed transmitted to a video-propagation server can be stored or cached in a video data storage provided with the propagation server, from which it can be re-transmitted later upon request.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a video feed management system (and related method) comprises: (a) a plurality of video feeds obtained from respective local sources of the video feeds; (b) at least one video-propagation server for receiving the plurality of video feeds from the local sources and allowing access via Internet to any requested video feed by a requesting party in accordance with authorization granted therefor; (c) a master authorization server connected to the Internet for receiving requests via Internet from requesting parties for access to any of the video feeds transmitted to the at least one video-propagation server and granting the requesting party access to the requested video feed from the video-propagation server; and (d) said master authorization server being provided with a computerized pricing table for computing a billing rate for the requesting party for access to the requested video feed, in order to generate a billing statement to the requesting party for use of the video feed. The master authorization server is also provided with a computerized video feed list that is updated by the at least one video-propagation server with video feed listings of the video feeds transmitted to the at least one video-propagation server. The master authorization server tracks any access requested for a video feed from the video feed list and computes a payment rate for the source of the requested video feed, in order to generate a payment statement to the source for access to the video feed.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a video feed remote control system (and related method) comprises: (a) a plurality of video feeds generated from respective video cameras located on-site at a plurality of locations, said video cameras being of a predetermined different video camera types; (b) a plurality of video camera computers operable with respective ones of the video cameras for controlling them to generate the respective video feeds therefrom and transmit them to a designated local video-propagation server, said video camera computers being connected to the Internet and addressable by respective IP addresses; (c) at least one video-propagation server connected to the Internet for receiving via Internet video feeds from the respective video cameras located at the on-site locations; (d) a master authorization server connected to the Internet for receiving requests via Internet from requesting parties for access to any of the video feeds transmitted to the at least one video-propagation server and granting a requesting party access to a requested video feed from the video-propagation server receiving the requested video feed; and (e) a universal control panel graphical user interface (GUI) provided on a browser-enabled computer operated by the requesting party for controlling any of the different video camera types used to generate the video feeds, wherein upon granting a requesting party access to a requested video feed, said master authorization server provides to the requesting party an identification of the video camera type and the IP address of the computer for the video camera generating the requested video feed to enable the requesting party to issue control signals for the corresponding video camera type to the IP address of the computer for the video camera generating the requested video feed.
In a preferred embodiment, the universal control-panel GUI is provided with a plurality of browser-based GUI files on a browser-enabled computer of a requesting party. Each browser-based GUI file corresponds to a respective one of the different video camera types, and enables a display of the universal control panel GUI on the requesting party""s computer and issues a respective set of command codes for inputs to the universal control panel GUI corresponding to the respective video camera type. In an alternative embodiment, the universal control-panel GUI is provided as a browser-based GUI file on the browser-enabled computer of a requesting party, and the at least one video-propagation server is used to provide a link to the computers for the respective video cameras. A conversion module is maintained with the video-propagation server for converting universal command codes issued from the universal control panel GUI on the requesting party""s computer into command codes corresponding to a respective one of the different video camera types.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an automated video Web page generating system (and related method) comprises: (a) a plurality of video feeds obtained from respective sources; (b) at least one video-propagation server connected to the Internet for receiving the plurality of video feeds and transmitting a video feed requested by a requesting party on the Internet; (c) a master authorization server connected to the Internet for receiving a request via Internet from a requesting party to use any one of the video feeds in a requested display presentation format in conjunction with a video Web page to be linked to a Web site maintained by the client company; and (d) said master authorization server being provided with a video Web page generation module for automatically generating a video Web page in the requested display presentation format using the requested video feed, and linking the generated video Web page to the requesting party""s Web site.
In a preferred embodiment, the master authorization server allows the requesting party to select from a plurality of stored display templates for different display presentation formats, and to upload the requesting party""s identification graphics to the master server for incorporation into a selected display template. Such a system can be used to automatically generate video Web page ads for a client company by offering a selection of ad display templates for use with their identification graphics and any requested video feed. Similarly, licensed affiliates or video production companies can request automatic generation of live events programming (sports, news, weather, traffic, cultural events) as video Web pages hosted by the Master site which are linked to their Web sites.
The system is intended to accomplish a marked reduction in production costs for creating video Web pages for e-commerce, live events programming, etc., by automatically generating such video Web pages and hosting them on the Master site for the video feed management system. An automated billing and payment system is provided with the Master server to generate billing statements to client companies and payment statement to video feed sources. To prevent de-linking of and unauthorized access to the video feed used in the video Web page, the Web page can be converted to a composite video image of the requested video feed and the requesting party""s identification graphics.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are described in detail below in conjunction with the following figures: